574 Great and Small Game of Africa 



them upon myself or others, two of which I will relate. A few years ago 

 (I think in 1891) my friends Messrs. Fred and Harry Barber were stooping 

 down, examining the carcase of a waterbuck which lay under a large tree, 

 when a leopard suddenly dropped from the branches, and fastened on the neck 

 of one sportsman. His brother, however, seized his rifle and shot the brute 

 dead, in such a prompt manner that a few flesh wounds only were received 

 by its would-be victim. In the other instance I had been helping my boys 

 to chop out some elephants' tusks, and afterwards walked to a small stream 

 50 yards away to wash my hands. Kneeling down, with my head bent 

 over the water, I heard a rush and a snarling growl, and saw a leopard 

 coming for me down the steep bank opposite, its long tail sweeping round 

 in a most excited manner. The moment I looked up the brute halted, 

 then retreated, growling, up the bank. I ran back for my rifle, and, accom- 

 panied by the boys, hurried after him. About 80 yards from the top of the 

 bank was a dense patch of low scrub, and, walking towards it, we passed 

 close to a little mound with a low bush growing on the top of it. I was 

 about 10 yards from this, and nearly abreast of it, when I saw something 

 move behind it ; it had vanished when I stopped, and I was edging away 

 to the right in order to see better, when, with a furious rush, the leopard 

 — for such it was — came out at us. I stopped him in mid-career, however, 

 and, as the shot was fired, a leopardess with a cub ran out from the scrub 

 beyond, but I missed her, and she eventually got clear off. 



I know of no better rifle than a .461 Metford, carrying the 90/360 

 charge, for leopard shooting ; but they are thin-skinned beasts, and any good 

 modified Express, if held straight, will drop the biggest leopard ever cubbed. 

 My remarks upon sights for night-shooting at lions apply equally to leopards. 

 Expanding bullets with good substantial butts are necessary, as, if solid 

 projectiles are used, there is often no blood-spoor, owing to the hide of the 

 leopard fitting so loosely that the hole in the body and the one in the skin 

 do not coincide, so that the bleeding is internal. p. Vaughan Kirby. 



